LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For the eighth time since the team's founding in 2017, the annual VGK Road Trip has hit the road.
Departing from City National Arena on Wednesday morning, members of the Golden Knights organization began their trek of five stops across four states in nine days.
Going from Jackson, Wyoming, to Billings, Montana, to Couer d'Alene and Boise, Idaho, to Reno, Nevada, TV cast and team staff members will be joined by VGK youth hockey coaches in pop-up on-ice clinics at local arenas.
Silver Knights goalie Isaiah Saville will help out at the clinic in Couer d'Alene, and Golden Knights defenseman Nic Hague will be the star of the show in the trip's final stop in Reno.
"It's one of the coolest things we do all year," VGK sideline reporter Ashali Vise told Channel 13 sports reporter Nick Walters. "It lets you know that summer is winding down and hockey season is just right around the corner. It gives us an opportunity to go into a lot of different markets to bond and get some face-time with those fans. Hockey clinics are put on in those areas. We’ll be doing library readings, so a really good opportunity to get out and thank some fans we wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to.”
“What it’s meant to do is create those additional touch-points in our outer markets," Golden Knights Chief Marketing Officer Eric Tosi said. "Fans in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana are able to watch Golden Knights through our relationship with Scripps Sports and our streaming platform Knighttime Plus. So we always utilize this off season in the summer months to be able to go out there, host some youth hockey clinics and engage with the community.”
This year's road trip is the longest that the team has taken for these youth clinics. The team will go approximately 2,700 miles and about 45 hours of driving time.
While one mission of the trip is to grow the Golden Knights brand across their massive broadcast region, another is helping aspiring hockey players with on-ice and ball hockey youth clinics.
“Once we get to the location, we work with the local youth organizations within those cities and we have pop-up clinics," Tosi said. "Our youth hockey coaches are on the ice or playing ball hockey with the kids. “
“Whether it’s like a learn-to-play program here or whether it’s more advanced, kind of tailor it to that city," Vise said. "Chance is there, so the kids who are on the ice get really excited about that as do the fans in the arena. It’s basically the Vegas Golden Knights treatment in places that wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to see that.”